The stage was the biggest one and Joe Root, one of the four highly rated batsmen in the cricket world at the moment, made his Test captaincy debut against a lethal bowling attack. Root, though, was unfazed by it as he showed his worth by stabilising the team after early jitters.
The pressure was right upon the captain as openers- one being former skipper- were out cheaply but Root came up with a performance befitting to his stature.
When Root came out to bat, it was a dual pressure on him. First, one of the scoreboard and the second one was the captaincy debut. The fortune of England was hanging in balance but as soon as Root started batting, he showed positive intent and positive vibes were seen in England camp.
Though Jonny Bairstow left the skipper, Ben Stokes stayed with the captain. He showed that he is efficient with bat as well and is the right man to deputize in absence of Joe Root.
The duo kept South Africa away from a wicket for 32 overs, meanwhile sharing 114 runs with Root to pull out team from a difficult position,
“I was surprised at how normal it felt when I got out there,” said Root after the end of first day’s play. “Maybe because that was just the first day in the job but I’d like to think it’s in my nature and see the situation and play accordingly. Early on as captain you want to set the example and try and get messages across to the guys and you need to show them that you’re willing to do that yourself,” he added.
It looked like Root was batting on a different track as South African pace attack was finding it difficult to put on the skipper whereas all the other batsmen were ready to surrender,
“It was a challenging wicket when they hit good areas so whenever they missed them it was important to try and put them under pressure. It was important to try and get to lunch and the wicket would get better as the day went on. The pleasing sign for us is that we have got runs on the board now and even with the old ball, it seemed to move around a bit,” he added.
It was a great day for England where they were out of the game for the first half but snatched away the early advantage from South Africa, thanks to England skipper Joe Root who is sitting on an overnight score of 184*.
He would first aim to touch the 200 run mark and add on 150-200 runs team’s total, in a little less than two sessions so as to ask South Africa bat in the last session and take the pressure of saving their wicket in the evening.